Gensler pushes Dodd-Frank rule writing

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission chairman is encouraging regulators to continue writing Dodd-Frank rules so that the U.S. doesn’t fall into a debt crisis like Europe’s current situation.

Gary Gensler, the CFTC chair, said that finishing the Dodd-Frank rules is a priority and that the rules will give financial institutions “the freedom to fail,” according to FoxBusiness. com.

"It's critical that financial institutions can fail from time to time and not have it spill out into the rest of the economy," Gensler said, FoxBusiness.com reports.

Once written, Gensler said that the new regulations will bring transparency to the swaps market and will help financial institutions become less interconnected.

Gensler’s push for more Dodd-Frank rule writing coincided with his announcement that he was stepping back from the CFTC’s investigation into missing customer funds at the failed broker-dealer MF Global Holdings Ltd., according to FoxBusiness.com.

On Friday, Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) called on Gensler to recuse himself because he had worked closely with Jon Corzine, the firm’s former chief executive, for a long period of time at Goldman Sachs Group.

Corzine opposed the CFTC’s proposal last year to tighten restrictions on how customer funds are invested in the “near term,” FoxBusiness.com reports.